To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles [1], but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
I did one of our regular “drain, scrub, rinse, and refill” chores on our Redneck Pool. That took several hours, but the results were worth the effort. Sparkling clear water, ready for guest visits.
We hired our neighbor to bring his tractor over to our place for some manure hauling. He cleaned out the main corral, and our dairy sheep pen. I don’t mind paying for his time and fuel. If I had done all that work with a pitchfork, shovel, and wheelbarrow, it would have taken me three weeks of work. But he handled it all in about six hours. About half of the manure went to form new squash mounds, at the sunny edge of our woodlot. We have found that our horse, cattle, and sheep show no interest in grazing on squash plants, so there is no need to fence them. (We have plenty of pasture grass, so your mileage may vary.) The only problem has been our free-ranging chickens, who like to tear apart any new manure piles, pecking for bugs and worms. But after the mounds settle over a winter, the chickens seem to leave the compacted piles alone.
After our neighbor was done with the sheep corral, I put the tubular panels back in place. Previously, I had supplemented the panels with 6″ x 8″-mesh welded wire panels. But this spring’s lambs were so tiny that they could squirm through the fencing. So, this time I replaced the panels with slightly taller 4″-mesh welded wire panels. That pen is now truly “sheep tight.” I also added an interior pen with three T-Posts and more of the same 4″ mesh panel material. That pen will be used to keep lambs separated from their moms overnight, when Lily plans to do any sheep milkings the next morning. That same pen may be used for jugging-up any ewes, as needed — for example, when we might need to have one foster any bummer lambs in the future.
I helped Lily harvest golden raspberries from our main garden. Lily has amazing berry-picking stamina. She consistently comes in with gallons and gallons of berries, even on hot days.
I weed-whacked our fenced Extension Garden, where the thistles are located.
Yesterday, I attended a gun show in Missoula, Montana. I’ve found that show is one of the best for finding antique guns. I care home with three.
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had some fairly warm weather here this week with a high of 92 degrees Fahrenheit and a low of 49 degrees Fahrenheit.
This week was a lot about animal infrastructure upkeep and development. I cleaned out the meat and fiber flock’s sheep shed and the Hen house. I also spent time raking the loafing area in front of the barn and around the outside of the Dairy sheep’s pen.
After our neighbor had finished scraping out the manure from the Dairy sheep pen, (it is so nice to have it finally cleaned out), Jim took the milking stand from the meat and fiber sheep shed and moved it to the Dairy sheep pen. He scrubbed it and then laid linoleum on it to give it a better surface for cleaning it and keeping it cleaner and more sanitary. Jim also built an interior pen so that I can separate the lambs from their mothers overnight for milking in the morning. We are preparing for me to begin milking those two or maybe three dairy girls very soon, and also to sell a few of their offspring in about a month or so. I am still milking two of the meat and fiber girls. They are so used to being milked now, that I can do so just by corralling them into the corner of their shed. I think I will be tapering off from milking them during the next few weeks. But I am interested in knowing how long they could be milked. So we shall see.
We still have to set up the Mineral Buffet. We have so much going on these days.
I mowed half of the near house meadow and around the pool, behind the shop, the woodshed garden that was not planted this year and beside the house. That took about four hours to do. The next day, I mowed the Main garden. I still want to mow the bottom half of the Near house Meadow, the orchard and the south pasture.
I continued harvesting our tart cherries. Miss Violet helped me pit them and we froze them. I also continued to harvest our three kinds of raspberries and to freeze them. We invited our neighbors over to pick and they left with two gallons. Such abundance this year!
I continued to weed the onions and garlic. I harvested more zuchs and froze them.
The pool finally warmed back up after refilling it to swimable temperatures by Wednesday afternoon. Our groundwater runs about forty-five degrees Fahrenheit. So it takes a few days of warm temperatures for it to heat up enough for comfortable swimming. Jim and I took a break from all of our work to have an afternoon swim together. Fun!
I returned to writing out the book of Matthew this week. I finally finished writing out chapter 13 and wrote out all of chapter 14 and started chapter 15. Additionally, I’ve decided to read Samuel through Chronicles during the next weeks. I am currently in 2 Samuel. It’s been a long time since I last read about the exploits of David, Solomon, and the rest of the Kings of Israel and Judah. As I write this I think I will back up, this next week to Joshua and Judges and then continue to read from there through Chronicles.
Briefly, a heads-up warning: After the 8.8 earthquake earlier this week, I want to let you know that the quake has made the Pacific plate very unstable. The earthquake touched off a volcano in Kamchatka. Since the earthquake has set the plate in motion we need to take heed that the pressure flow will go north and will flow from Alaska down our west coast. We need to pay attention to the possibility of a 7.0 or larger striking our west coast and/or any one of the Cascade Volcanoes erupting in the coming weeks. I am suggesting that you harvest and forage and preserve soon what ever you can, and I suggest that you get as much sun (Vitamin D) on your body as possible, because if there are multiple volcanic eruptions in the coming weeks, the ash will block the sun and we will have many more clouds, rain and cooling. We would see very little of the sun. I also suggest that if possible one invests in grow lights in order to grow food indoors. If there are multiple large volcanoes going off in the very near future there will be very little growing outside.
On another note, on August 13, YouTube is going to begin to implement an AI-powered age estimation based on your viewing habits to mark your age as an effort to keep underage children from accessing “Age Restricted” content. (Think p*rn, violence, etc…) If the AI pegs you as under 18, thus restricting your access to some “Age Restricted” content, then you can submit a RealID, Selfie, or a government-issued ID to have that overridden.
The Mark of the Beast is being implemented in increments. It is a slowly tightening noose. Pay attention. If you believe in Jesus, you are going to have to start saying “No” and need to opt out and give up things. We can not participate in this Beast System. It’s coming fast. I fear that by as soon as November of 2026 our country and most likely the whole world will be cashless, tokenized, and digital. People will not be able to buy or sell unless they give all of their information to the system in order to participate in this digital system. It is time to seriously prepare to live outside of it if you are a true believer in Christ. Remember, Esau sold his birthright for a pot of lentil stew, a single meal. Shall we do the same? If you are hungry because you didn’t prepare, then what are you going to do? Trust God to fill your tummy or take the Mark/join the system to eat?
May You All Remain Safe, Blessed, and Hidden in Christ Jesus,
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
o o o
As always, please share and send e-mails of your own successes and hard-earned wisdom and we will post them in the “Snippets” column this coming week. We want to hear from you.